


Revision

by s_u_n_b_i_r_d



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: AU, Angst, Angst and Feels, Cussing, Feels, Gen, One Shot, Other, dark themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:47:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22369729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/s_u_n_b_i_r_d/pseuds/s_u_n_b_i_r_d
Summary: How different would your life be if you could go back and make just one little change?--------------A short little one-shot written for a friend.
Kudos: 18





	Revision

_Revision: a change or a set of changes that corrects/improves something._

“Stanley Pines, y-y-you give that back!”

Summoning every last ounce of what little strength he has to offer, Blendin Blandin tenses up and tries, yet again, to burst free from the handcuffs on his wrists and feet. Beads of sweat form on his forehead as his face turns scarlet with effort - effort that is, ultimately, absolutely futile. He may have completed his training, he might have the clearance and the personal blessing of Time Baby himself to travel across the past, the present, and the future...

But in the end, he’s nothing without his weapons. 

That thought hits hard, and he snaps his head back up to scream at the man standing on the other side of the room. “Stanley Pines, I-I-I order you to drop that RIGHT NOW! _That isn’t y-yours!”_ He wiggles forward. “You have n-no authority to u-use a Time Tape! You belong HERE, and n-n-nowhen or n-nowhere else!”

Stan pays him no mind. His back is turned to the time traveler as he looks down at the small object in his hand. It looks so simple and unsubstantial, but he runs his fingers over it with reverence, likes it’s the key to the universe. Like it’s the answer to all his prayers.

And God help him....it is.

“Stanley! St...STAN! I.....I-I know w-w-what it is y-you want! And I kn-know how m-m-much it hurts to l-lose someone!”

Broken out of his thoughts, Stan turns around for the first time since Blendin woke up from his cup of drugged coffee. He locks gazes with the time traveler, and though the other man’s eyes are hidden behind thick goggles, he can tell, through sheer instinct, that Blendin is _crying._

“I-I-I know what it’s like to l-lose s-someone,” repeats Blendin, worming his way closer to Stan with ragged breaths. “I r-remember. I remember how hard it hits. I r-r-remember r-rethinking _everything_ I ever did and didn't do to save them. And I r-remember lying awake at night, wishing for anything that c-could give me t-the power to make things t-turn out differently."

He pauses, and Stan's body language softens at the way the other man swallows and forces back his tears and his pain before continuing on. "I kn-know you w-w-want your brother back, Stanley...b-but you HAVE to just accept what happened! No m-matter HOW much it hurts! P-Please believe me - w-what you're about to do - _it isn’t the answer!”_ He looks up at Stan with a desperate, pleading face. “Stan, if you go through with this, you're going to trigger the Butterfly Effect!"

Stan stares blankly at him for a long, long time. "....The _what?"_ he finally answers.

"T...T-The Butterfly Effect!" There it is, Stan's undivided attention. A single thread of potential salvation. Blendin scoots closer, careful to keep eye contact with Stan. "It's part of Chaos Theory! D-do you kn-know how it works?"

"Do I LOOK like I know how it works?"

"It's r-really simple to understand," Blendin blubbers. "The Butterfly Effect! Noun! T-The phenomenon whereby a m-m-minute localized ch-change in a c-complex system can have l-l-large effects elsewhere."

"THAT'S supposed to be simple to understand?!" snaps Stan, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

"I-It means that one t-tiny change echoes through the u-universe! L-like a ripple in water! It doesn't j-just stay in o-one place, it affects the surface of the whole entire o-ocean! You change just o-one little thing, y-y-you change EVERYTHING! Th-that's why I c-c-can't let you do this!" He scoots closer. "This potential action - it'll affect E-EVERYTHING and EVERYONE else, past, present, AND future!"

"...So what?"

Blendin freezes and lays there, stunned into silence by those words.

Stan stares down at him, all the warmth and humanity in his amber eyes dead and gone. "So what if this screws with other people, or...or time, or the universe or whatever?" he says, shrugging. "So what, I'm just supposed to - to sit back and let the opportunity of a lifetime slip through my fingers? I'm just supposed to _shut up_ and _behave_ and _let this happen?"_ He snorts, his voice hollow and empty, and yet, full with a deep-seated bitterness. "Nah. **Fuck that**. I don't care if sayin' no to this will keep everyone else in this shitty fuckin' world happy. _They_ don't matter. _No one else matters. "_

He stands up slowly, and looks over his shoulder at the defuct portal behind him.

"No one...'Cept for him," he finishes quietly.

"Y...you...you IDIOT!" With his last ounce of patience gone, Blendin shakes his head, clenching his teeth together in anger and fear. "Stanley Pines, don't you GET IT?! The consequences of your actions c-could destroy worlds and disintegrate the v-v-very f-fabric of the universe! Planets could disappear into nothing! The course of all known history will be altered irreparably! Stanley!" Blendin sits up, beads of cold sweat running down his face in his fear. "Stanley, people y-you love - people you WILL love - _they could DIE -!”_

**“I don’t care!”**

Blendin falters, gawking up at the other man with baited breath. He’s used to talking to another Stan, a better Stan, the Stan from the year 2013, where he’s faced his demons and conquered them. Where he’s grown.

Where he’s happy.

But this isn’t the Stan he knows. The year is 1982, and Stan is still young. He is hungry and desperate and lonely. He has lived on a knife’s edge for a decade, cheating and lying and burning bridge after bridge just to get by. A week ago, he came to speak with his brother for the first time in ten years.

A week ago, he cast his brother into another dimension.

This Stan is young. This Stan is impulsive. This Stan is desperate and hurting and half insane from guilt and lack of sleep. And as Blendin looks up at the broken-hearted man before him, he understands, with absolute horror, that this Stan _can’t_ be reasoned with.

“One more chance,” mutters Stan, looking back down at the Time Tape in his hand. “One more chance. I’m..." He swallows, his voice wavering with emotion, and carefully, purposefully, he grabs the end of the tape and stretches it out, looking for the exact moment where it all went wrong. "I'm not gonna screw it up. Not this time.” He narrows his eyes. "Never. Ever. Ever. Again."

“Stan?!” Blendin watches him stretch the tape out, back, back to 1972, back to that fateful night before the Science Fair. Before the accident. Before Destiny. “STAN!”

“I’m getting my brother back,” whispers Stan, and with a loud, resonating _SNAP,_ he lets go of the tape.

"STANLEY, _NO!"_

And the world goes white.


End file.
